Note: The following is a mystery document that I found in my email. concerning a House Forsaken Solar Empire game during the period when the former Solar Empire Section that later became known as the Browser Based Gaming Realm was disintegrating in the wake of the TDZK Cheating Scandal coupled with revelations of cheating and hacking perpetrated by HF's leadership in years gone by. The mass resignation of BBG members coupled with the weakening and eventual collapse of the BattleField 1942 Realm meant the end of HF as an effective gaming force and its transformation into being nothing more than a mere forum clan.
Anyways here is the mystery document that reveals much about the state of SE in 2003:
Well, once again, I've been ketp from posting my
thoughts on the subject in-depth due to other pressing
matters. However, here's a cut & paste from 1 of my
posts on another thread concerning stuff that our
version should avoid at all costs:
Krioni: This is a game where there are 75 turns & 100
shields generated per hour. You basically have
pain-free, risk-free killing here. These stats, plus a
ship called the Transversor, guarantees that if you
have entered the game early and/or have a strong,
experienced clan behind you, that you will have
pain-free, risk-free killing sprees here. No more
chance of being stuck high & dry without turns or
having your ship's shields being so whittled down for
hours on end after the attack that they would be
vulnerable to attack. And no more having to make the
long haul to Earth aka Sector #1, subject to attack
along the way there & back either. SE has lost a lot
of what challenge it had & with it, the suspense &
need for careful planning & strategizing that once
made it one of the most interesting, not to mention
fun games around.
Well, a lot of what's been suggested above is either
fluff or stuff that should wait until our version is
out of beta. Not too much of it really gets to the
core of what's wrong with SE. First of all, the game
was much better under Bryan's control despite all the
problems that were encountered with Mr. Livingston.
Those were all 100 sector games, at least in Original.
There were 2 turns & 5 shield generation per hour.
This prevented the strong from pummelling the weak in
mindless killing sprees. It ensured that the game
would be fun for all including newbies, independent
players & smaller clans. There were far fewer shops,
ships & weapons making the game a lot easier to learn
how to play. There were no warp drives or bursts or
for that matter safe Sector #1's. This made all
players having to choose to either travel to Sector #1
armed & leave the planet weak or go to Sector #1 weak
& susceptible to attack. This added both high strategy
to the game & also made it possible for the underdogs
to possibly strike at those on the top & bring them
down a notch or 2.
In SE as it currently is, the game is far more
complicated than it originally was, making it harder
to learn how to play. This has a bad effect on the
number of people trying out the game, which in turn
hurts the qulaity of gameplay. With warp drive & ships
like the transversor & safe Sector #1's, its almost
impossible for weak players to inflict damage on the
stronger. Now, its the strong are on top from the get
go & the weaker have no chance to really participate
in the game except as cannon fodder.
Well, I have to go now, but you get the basic idea. In
order to save SE, you have to bring the game back to
its roots. The ideal solution is to combine Bryan's
original vision with honest, competent administration
& fixing problems immediately, rather than letting
them go unfixed for months after becoming aware of
them as Bryan did with the 5k fighter planet bug.
crector
Well, hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to expand on
this subject at length.
For now:
If you guys had read my previous posts, I'm not
advocating a wholesale return to Bryan's SE. There are
some features that have been added since November,
1999, such as clan-wide messaging that have been for
the better. However, if you want to save the game,
then what you have to do is to bring the game back to
when it really worked & was loads of fun and then
retool the features already in the game back then.
What do I mean by "retooling," you might ask. Well,
that entails redoing the feature in question so that
it adds more to the game than it originally did. For
example, Starports in SE have always been places where
you simply sell your stuff and nothing but that.
Starports could be revamped so that they also have
Banks where you deposit money for 5% daily interest.
Starports could also start off the game with say 5k
Fighters set on Passive & 5k Shields for protection
against attack. If a clan was successful in capturing
a Starport could have it for its own exclusive use &
it could also purchase franchises for the shops at
Sector #1 (Wally's, etc.) & their members would be
able to enjoy significant discounts on the stuff
purchased at the shops at the port. Of course, the
Starport at Sector #1 would be exempt from military
action. The strategic significance of Starports would
also be enhanced if no more than 4 or 5 sectors
outside of Sector #1 had them. It should be pointed
out that I'm not suggesting that we implement trading
between ports because that would transform SE into a
space trading game like SMR & TDZK & we really don't
want that now, do we?
In other words, go back to the days when SE both
worked & was fairly popular, then rework the features
already in the game, then once that's done, add more
to the game, but in a careful thoughtful manner. Let's
face it: when SE had 100 sectors, 2 turns per hour & 5
shield generation per hour, the game worked. Now, with
games of 600+ sectors, 75 or so turns per hour, 100
shield generation per hour and as many as 50% of all
sectors having Starports, SE really doesn't work & it
isn't popular at all. Here's something else that I
hadn't gotten around to discussing: In Bryan's SE,
resources were rare & far between as were Starports.
In the current SE, at every server, there are loads of
respirces & multitudes of Starports. Yet by common
consensus, the game is screwed up. Sometimes less is
more.
crector
[quote="Antaeus Arturo"]The game won't be set up until
you guys can come to a consensus on how it should be
run. Just FYI.[/quote]
ok, guys, you saw what Arturo said here. No consensus,
no SE game set up under HF control. Let's try to come
up with something that we can all agree on. Here's my
proposal:
100 sectors
AutoWarp, but not Transwarp.
5 shield generation per hour
2 turns per hour
No more than 15k total resources in any sector & no
more than 40% of all sectors have resources.
Have free colonists.
Implement banks at Starports with 5% interest daily
earned on deposits.
Have no more than 4 Starports outside of Sector #1
Have Gamma Bombs at the original price of 80k publicly
available at Wally's again.
Get rid of the Auction House & Charity Shop.
Clan membership limit at 10.
No islands in the game.
Call the new game the "SE Newbies Server" so as to
attract new players to the game. Under the above
specifics, the game will be a lot more newbie-friendly
than any of the other SE games.
Anybody else care to post their specifics? What ideas
for a 1st round of a HF SE game do you have? Is it
possible that we can agree on these? Remember, we can
play 1 round, then start a process of revamping
features and dropping/adding others until we reach a
game that we're pretty satisfied with. Once that's
done, we can give it a new name such as Space Miner or
Space Fleets or whatever & its own domain name & site
and then go all-out to promote it as a brand-new game
in its own right. Then, we can implement the idea for
a league.
In any event, we have to come up with a consensus on
game specifics in order to get our own game setup.
crector
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[quote="Mr. A."]It sounds just like the OS-SE project
we did, which failed. It just won't work, people are
too used to the quick tempo of the game for it to be
like that anymore. We have to build on the SE that
exists now, I don't have any ideas right now, but the
ones you came up with about the ports, and banks, etc.
are really good.[/quote]
If you're referring to the Old Skool game, you're
wrong. That game had a high turns per hour rate, high
shield generaton rate, huge quantities of resources in
practically every sector & most of the post-Bryan
features in the game. It was called Old Skool, but it
wasn't old school. Furthermore, calling it "Old Skool"
made it sound like a veterans game to newbies, so
that's why not very many people signed up for it.
Going back to SE's roots simply hasn't been tried.
Solar Empire was simply far more popular in Bryan's
day than it is today. I can remember Original games
with over 400 players, whereas today's SE can rarely
muster even so much as 75 to a game.
There aren't all that many regular SE players any
more, so it doens't make a whole lot of sense to make
another SE game that panders to them. That kind of
reasoning is what's lead to the development of all
these SE servers, all offering, as Arturo put it in
this thread's opening post, "there's just too many
servers out there doing the exact same thing." The
simple fact is that there are a lot of SE players past
& present who would prefer a slower alternative, as
shown by the fact that when the game was slower, it
was also a lot more popular. Look at the most popular
space strategy BBG's out there. How many of them offer
you the kind of turnage rate that SE does now?
Practically none. In SMR, the fastest ship speed is 9
turns per hour, yet that game has almost 800 players
in it with a universe of just under 3,000 sectors as
compared to the current Modern SE universe's 600
sectors. Here's another thing: today's SE is one of
the most newbie-unfriendly BBG's in existence. With
the game's hyper-quick tempo, they simply don't have
much of a chance to be able to learn how to play the
game before getting blasted & blasted until they say
too Hell with it all & go on to some other BBG.
In any event, if you look back & read my posts more
carefully, I'm not advocating a wholesale adoption of
Bryan's original game. Some of the newer features such
as clan-wide messaging and the ability of clan leaders
to change the password are for the better. Many of the
features, such as Starports & Planets (future post
coming up there) need revamping. However, the basic
ideas of Bryan's game are still sound: a game that
quite often lasted a month or so at a time, done at a
slow tempo thus giving newbies a chance to learn how
to play the game, with limited resources & a low
turnage rate in the game so as to force players to
choose between engaging in gratifying their homicidal
lusts in the beginning or colonizing for a
resource-less future. The low turnage & shield
generation rates helped protect newbies with the
result that many of them learned how to play the game
and stick with it. Additionally, in Bryan's game,
players who entered the game a week or so after it
started, could & did have a really good game, whereas
in today's SE unless its an experienced player, you're
behind the 8-ball.
Today's SE with its rejection of Bryan's original
stance, has a low standing with the gaming community
at large. I know this because whenever I've tried to
get players in other games interested in SE, the
reaction is that either they've either never heard of
it before or that they've heard that its horrible. The
few players who had actually tried the game almost
unanimously thought that it was awful. That's why we
need to go back to SE's roots, revamp it with our own
game, and then ultimately go and use the result to
launch our own game, shorn of SE's poor reputation.
Following is a cut & paste of SC's HF SE game settings
with his original statements having quote marks around
them and my responses following.
Given the fact that Arturo's thread has gotten too
long, it seemed best to start a new thread to continue
the quest for a consensus.
"Star Systems - should be kept fairly low. Something
like 200 - 400. Or higher/lower based on the # of
people joining. There are some maps out there with
like 1000 systems, and it's near impossible to find
anyone because there are so few people in comparison
to the star systems."
Response: Actually, 200-400 sectors is a pretty high
number given that Bryan's SE games never had any more
than 100 sectors. However, for old times's sake, we
could go with 300 sectors for our first game since the
HF SE game that Arturo admined usually were that size.
"Starports - Something between 5 and 10%, perhaps 20
at a real max if we wanna go a bit extreme. One thing
we don't want though is starports in every, or every
other sector. Otherwise there's no need to really
scout for a prime location to set up at."
Response: That sounds like a pretty good idea,
although it would be best to limit the number of
Starports to no more than 4 sectors outside of Sector
#1 in a 100 sector game. In a 300-sector game, that
would amount to 13 Starports. That way, Starports
would be prime locations that clans could fight over.
Of course, I do want the Starports in the 1st round of
our game to have Banks where you can earn 5% daily
interest on your money.
"Turns - 25 an hour 600 max (takes a full 24 hours to
fill to max). 600 turns may SEEM like a lot at first,
but it can go by really quickly when shifting
colonists or scouting around."
Response: 25 turns per hour is an absurd number,
especially considering that in SMR the fastest ships
will garner their owners less than 10 turns per hour
in a universe that's just a little under 3,000
sectors. That kind of turnage is what makes the
wholesale slaughter of newbies possible in todays SE.
That slaughter, in turn, is why the number of players
in SE is far lower than it was in Bryan's day. In
Bryan's 100-sector games, it was 2 turns per hour. In
a 300-sector game, it could be 6 sectors per hour. In
the spirit of reaching a consensus on this issue, we
could have it set so that after Sudden Death begins,
the number of turns per hour goes up 2 every 24 hours
until such time as SD is over with a clear winner. As
for the max number of turns, Bryan's games had 100 max
so in a 300 sector game, that would be 300 max turns.
In SD, that number could go up say 100 turns per 24
hours.
"Shields - 5 to 10 an hour."
Response: That sounds good. In Bryan's game, it was 5
per hour. In SD, it could be upped to 10 per hour.
"Attacking ships- 5 to 10 turns per ship attack. Can
attack 60 to 120 ships if you have a full load of
turns. "
Response: 5 turns per attack was what it was in
Bryan's game. This discouraged mindless newbie
slaughter & guaranteed that players would generally
focus on scoring kills that benefit their clans (such
as off other clans) instead of trying to pad their
statistics. This would also give independent players a
chance to have some fun.
"Attacking planets - 10 to 30 turns. Attack a planet
or planets 20 to 60 times."
Response: In Bryan's game, it was 5 turns to attack a
planet. In our game, we could start off with 30 turns
to attack planets to allow newbies & independents a
chance to build up their planets, then once SD starts
to bring it down 5 turns every 24 hours to 5 turns per
planet attack.
"Clan size - I think 6 is a nice clan size limit. 5 is
allright, and anything less than 5 makes it VERY
difficult for clans to make productions. Make it
harder for newer people to stay alive. More than 6 is
getting a bit large, except it can be fun once in a
while for a change."
Response: Sounds great, SC.
"Starting funds - Should be changed as the game
progresses until SD. Thus giving more cash to those
who start later, giving them a chance to catch up a
bit more to those who have signed up earlier."
Response: This is a pretty good idea, SC.
"Independants vs Clans - I know on some servers there
is an option where it costs credits to set up a clan,
and where there is also a clan tax to join the clan.
That is one option. Another option is having the Admin
give credits to any player who is an Indy to help him
keep up a bit more with clans. "
Response: In Bryan's SE, independents were able to
play pretty good games & have lots of fun too.
Remember the TM's struggle against Reverend Norb in
the Test Game? This was because under Bryan, the game
settings were such as to greatly discourage mindless
attacks on independent players during the pre-SD
period. If we avoid having absurdly high turns per
hour rates & shield generation per hour such as in the
Modern SE game, then we will be able to provide
independent players with a much more level playing
field than in the other SE games.
"Things to remove - The Omega bombs from Bilkos don't
do anything. You collect them and they disappear. Fix
them or take them out. But don't let people waste
their cash on something that isn't there."
Response: Sounds good, SC.
All right guys, want to come to a general agreement on
initial game settings so that we can get a new game
set up? Start posting away!
I'm especially interested in SC's ideas for other game
settings such as max resources in a sector, % of
sectors with resources, etc.
crector
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